The Lotus Eaters
by Soap Lady
Summary: Co-authored with FluffleNeCharka. After the events of "Tales of Suspense Part 2", Gene awakens in a hospital suite to his concerned friends and lingering doubt.


Author's note: This is actually a co-authored story with FluffleNeCharka. Thank you so much for making my first IM:AA story so painless. So if this is brilliant, thank her. If it's utter tripe blame me ;P But seriously Fluffle, thanks.

_Am I dead? No, wait… I'm not, I can't be, I have to-_

He wasn't. He jolted awake, suddenly achy and out of sorts. The light of the sterile white room blinded him until his eyes adjusted and he could smell antiseptic and industrial cleaning products. Prison. Or… a prison hospital, to be more precise. It bore all the markings of a hospital room, but there were security cameras and bars on the window. What had happened? His head was pounding and he couldn't recall for the life of him how he'd gotten here. He knew he had been foolish to go back to that place but he had been so certain…

"KHAN!"

Wonderful. He wasn't in prison, he was in Hell. Death was preferable to this. Groaning, he sank into the soft pillows of his hospital bed, noting the IV in his wrist and just how much of him was bandaged. He looked like hell. Happy Hogan grinned like the gibbon monkey he was and slapped Gene painfully on the shoulder. Gene gasped in pain, but the other boy didn't seem to notice.

"What is UP, bro? The Nerd Brigade got you this private room because they thought you'd sleep yourself to death and they figured you'd want to do it all quiet like."

The Chinese boy rubbed the bridge of his nose, feeling a migraine coming on. He could feel his heartbeat in his head and Hogan was not helping. "And you're here because...?"

The jock puffed out his chest proudly. "I'M doing community service, reading to the sick and sleeping." He showed Gene a copy of Penthouse Letters before shoving it in his book bag. Happy leaned over and told Gene in a conspiratory whisper: "Set up a webcam in the girls' locker room. Had a site set up and everything. Crabby old gym teacher turned me in. Shouldn't have been checking out sites like that anyway." Grunting, the school athlete pulled himself to his feet, smiling down at the injured boy as if about to give him a special treat. "Oh yeah, someone wanted to know the minute you woke up. Your own lil' Florence... um... Henderson, dude."

Hogan stepped out into the hall while Gene tried to organize and process this new information. He had been injured? How? And why go to the expense and trouble of a hospital when Stark could just as easily dumped him off with NYPD and exposed him as the Mandarin? He didn't remember any of it, and that was very, very alarming. He looked around the high tech room and wondered who the heck was paying for his expenses when criminals normally didn't get anything like this. It didn't make sense unless-

"Wow, heavier than she looks." Happy groaned with exertion as he wheeled a black executive chair into the room.

Gene's hands instinctively straightened his hair and clothing when he saw who it was, although there was only so much he could do with the IV in his wrist. It was Pepper. She could not have been comfortable sleeping curled in that chair. Her face looked troubled as she slept, her brow furrowed as if in worry or concentration. Her atomic red hair was bedraggled looking, clinging messily to her strangely pale face as she dozed, looking as if she'd slept for a week in the same clothes. He had never seen her more beautiful. _She waited here? For me?_

Happy ruined the tender moment by leaning over and shouting in her ear. "PEPPER! Gene's AWAKE now! He's NOT going to DIE!"

Gene Khan winced in sympathy as Pepper's body shuddered as she pulled herself awake, rubbing the vestiges of her nap out of her eyes as she blinked to focus on the person in front of her. The redhead's dust colored eyes widened and her face grew ashen as she stared at him and for one terrible moment he thought she would strike him and run away in tears. He froze, amber-brown eyes going wide. Then she squealed in delight.

"GENE!" Pepper Potts tackled and hugged him simultaneously and kissed his startled cheek. Twin tears beaded in the corner of her eyes but she smiled at him with the beatitude of a saint. "I'm glad you're okay. We were all so worried about you. But I knew you'd be okay, I just knew it. 'Cause you're tough. And, you know, in really good shape because of the martial arts. Your brains waves were all normal and stuff, I know because I had the nurse teach me how to read the EEG machine. But I was still worried. Oh oh oh! Did you have a near death experience? Did you see a white light? I bet you saw angels or something because-"

Gene let her affection and concern for him wash over like rain, a strange and welcome warmth spreading over him. Pepper was here for him, even in uncertainty and pain. She was here and she was so real and warm; he couldn't help but smile at her as she babbled on, voice fast and steady as always. There were puffy rings under her eyes as if she'd cried. Someone had cried over him. Someone actually cared if he disappeared from this world, even after his betrayal.

Wait a minute...

Gene looked from Happy to Pepper, staring into her innocent, loving earth colored eyes. There was no doubt, no fear, no anger, not even a flicker of resentment. It was as if – and part of him dared to hope – the events after passing the Test of Sacrifice had never happened at all. He furrowed his brow, looking around in confusion. Something was strange about this. Where was the hate he'd been expecting? Nothing in his life ever went right, just progressively more and more wrong. This seemed too good to be true.

"Hey, the Sleeping Prince has awakened." As if on cue, Tony Stark strode into the room looking like he owned it, which under the circumstances was entirely possible. The storm blue eyes were warm and compassionate. The Mongolian boy narrowed his own topaz eyes in confusion. "Welcome back, Gene. We were afraid you wouldn't make it. But after you survived ten hours of surgery, we figured you'd live, if for no other reason to spite death."

He must have looked confused because Pepper continued the story, "After our...um, trip to Peru, you were injured when the temple collapsed. Tony and I dug you out-" for the first time Gene noticed hers and Stark's hands were as bandaged as his own- "and then Tony called Rhodey and arranged for a rescue." She turned to Hogan. "Um, Happy? Can you go get us some snacks and stuff?" She handed him a twenty. "Keep the change, okay?"

Pepper and Tony both had a sickening amount of damage, not just to their hands but to their arms. Pepper was bandaged up to the elbow, the skin above that scratched, discolored and molted. Tony had a nasty looking bruise on his left arm, as if he'd been struck there by some kind of heavy weight. He wasn't as pale or weak looking as Pepper, but that only made sense given that she'd planted herself by Gene's side the first second she could. When she turned to hand Happy the money, Gene caught sight of bandages around her midriff that were stained brown with dried blood and noticed she was sitting awkwardly still.

Oblivious to the world, Happy winked at her and left the room. "You got it!"

Gene somehow found the energy for one of his usual smirks. If was weaker than normal, a bit failing and slightly painful, but he managed. "You know you'll never see that food. He'll be distracted by the first hot nurse he sees and either get kicked out or leave the hospital."

Tony closed the door quickly despite his injuries and pulled a chair beside Pepper. "It doesn't matter. That was just so we could talk in private." Tony's eyes narrowed slightly, and Gene felt his body tense against his will. He lowered his voice to a low whisper in case Happy burst back in. "Zhang was picked up by S.H.I.E.L.D. Using a few creative interrogation techniques they forced him to confess to enough felonies to keep him and most of the Tong away from you. You'll never have to worry about him again."

"Oooh! Can I tell him?" Pepper was fidgeting in her eagerness to tell him whatever Zhang had told the authorities. For someone who'd been through what she had, she seemed rather upbeat. Then again, when wasn't Pepper upbeat?

Gene felt apprehensive. If Zhang had been broken then it would be only a matter of time before S.H.I.E.L.D knew all about the Makluan rings and then they would claim them, obliterating any chance he had of fulfilling his destiny. Not to mention bringing back his mother with the rings' power – they wouldn't put the rings to such a use at S.H.I.E.L.D. nor would they lend them out for that kind of thing. His chances at saving his mother were slipping away like water cupped in his hands and he fought down the urge to panic. He inhaled slowly, trying to focus. There was a strange pain in his head that was making thinking clearly rather hard, but he had to try and salvage this situation somehow.

"Ok, Hogan's gone, so why don't you tell me what really happened to me?"

Stark seemed entirely too calm and smug for his liking and that made Gene nervous. If he didn't know better he'd swear Tony enjoyed seeing him confused and uncertain. There was a sadistic gleam in those cloudy sky eyes, one that Gene couldn't pass off as just his imagination. Tony tilted his head ever so slightly, like a cat examining a mouse it had just caught. Pepper seemed not to notice as she shifted uneasily, wincing in slight pain. Her regular clothes were gone, replaced by an outfit that allowed her to wear bandages underneath easily. Tony's clothes were the same as always; apparently he'd only hurt his hands. Wait, how was that possible?

"You were eaten by a dragon, remember?" Tony seemed smug. "When you passed the test and saved Pepper-" Stark's tender smile at the redhead made Gene's stomach turn. "-Fin Fang Foom collapsed on you. We barely got you out before you stopped breat-"

"Zhang told us where Tony's dad is!" Pepper blurted out, half shrieking. The brunette grunted in displeasure. She ignored him and pressed on, eyes shining with joy. "He grabbed him to see what he knew about the rings, so S.H.I.E.L.D is gonna track him down and rescue him!" Pepper did a happy little dance with her feet, unable to do so with her body right now. "Is that great or what?"

"Great. I'd even say amazing." Tony help up his right hand and the Chinese boy was shocked to see all five rings sitting there, inert until called by their master. Gene felt his blood run cold when Tony next spoke. "You mind telling us why you didn't let us know YOU were the true heir to the original Mandarin?"

_Well...merde. He was screwed. Up the arse. With a cactus. And no KY._

Pepper looked her usual open minded self. Her expression said she was perfectly fine with this and her body language was relaxed, friendly even. Then again, he'd never thought she would be the one he'd have problems with in the first place. Stark, on the hand...Tony's eyes reminded him of a hunter on the steppes, watchful and dangerous. Waiting patiently for his prey to make a mistake. That gaze concerned him but he did not panic. He would not. Being nimble minded enough to survive an "education" under Zhang, outwitting a boy genius would be but a challenging mental exercise. One thing he'd learned was that emotion was to be suppressed, bottled up inside and kept under lock and key. It was the only way he could survive Zhang, and it was the only way he would survive this conversation. He schooled his face into its usual superior stare and faced his friend and rival.

Gene looked on the side table and found a new pair of sunglasses waiting for him. A pink bow was tied around the middle. Dear Pepper. She though of everything, didn't she? A small smile graced his lips. The glasses fit perfectly, and he felt his pupils dilate, thankful for the added layer of protection against the light. When and how she'd gotten ahold of this, he didn't know. It seemed off, oddly out of place in the sterile hospital, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong here. Through the safety and confidence of his restored vision he met Tony's eyes unflinchingly.

"Riiight, like you rushed to tell me all about being Iron Man, Stark?" Pepper made a small mew of distress at his tone and he smiled at her reassuringly. "But you were trying to protect me, weren't you?" This statement was more to her than to Tony, and spoken with a certain fondness. "You trying to take on all the danger yourselves. I appreciate that." Pepper seemed reassured but he doubted anything he could make up would banish the suspicion in Iron Man's eyes so he added a ray of truth. "The rings and the Mandarin's legacy are considered sacred history in my family, information rarely shared with outsiders. I learned secrecy at my mother's knee because there are those in China who would either use or kill us. We were Mongolians and therefore we were not treated equally under the law. We were in great danger there."

He could see that he had at least half a captive audience so he continued. "The Mandarin was not meant to be a tyrant, like Zhang. The tests have shown me the first Khan was a wise and noble leader who did not want the rings used for selfish, evil purposes." He bowed his head and spoke more to himself than the others. "He would burn with shame to see how his inheritance was being used. Zhang is not a disgrace, he is a sacrilege."

"So...in other words...he was a good Vader?" The girl with the sunset hair seemed eager to believe him. Her eyes were wide and trusting, the epitome of innocence. She believed him, he could tell that much at a glance.

Stark seemed a bit more relaxed. His eyes held a lot less of their hostility, and his shoulders had gone from tensed to at ease as Gene spoke. It was clear from his expression that he was thinking about this new information, turning it over in that genius head of his. Still, it was obvious their relationship had shifted into a very gray area. Gene doubted they'd ever regain the easy camaraderie they gained at the foot of the glacier. Very well. He could wait. The rings weren't going anywhere and he could work on regaining Tony's trust with time. Let the young scientist study them in the meantime. Tony couldn't use them. Why would he need them? He had power of his own. He had no reason to want the rings beyond a thirst for power, which was something Tony had never displayed in the past. So why, then, was Tony still eyeing him like he wanted something? Gene's eyes fell to the rings and barely restrained a frown. _Those are mine, damn it._

Pepper saw the intensity in which Gene gazed at the rings and rushed to intervene. "Don't worry! Tony will give you back the rings. You know, since they're your inheritance and all. _Won't you_, Tony?" Stark yelped and Gene could swear Little Miss Sunshine pinched the other boy. _Served him right_, Gene thought with a smirk.

Tony quickly regained his composure. "Sure." The boy genius seemed nonchalant about handing over the most advanced tech on the planet. "Soon as I know you don't plan to conquer the world, we're cool." The brown-haired boy raised a mocking brow. "I assume you have plans for them?"

"I'm no emperor," he didn't expect saying those words aloud would actually hurt. It did. He was eternally grateful Zhang wasn't here to see him say this. "I can't lead my people when I can barely care for myself. For now, I think I want to learn more about the rings and maybe finish my education. I'll be a true heir to the Mandarin and maybe one day... I can help China regain her past, and make peace with Mongolia. The two countries _are_ of one race."

There was a pause. This had not been the answer Stark was expecting, but it was an honest one even if not the whole truth. "That's...rather ambitious." Tony said at last.

Gene glanced at him. "No more that running a company the _size_ of China." He reminded the other boy. "Or being a superhero."

"Well..." Tony got up and stretched. "Your goals aren't exactly easy ones, especially the helping China bit. For that, you'll need some guidance. A teacher that actually cares about you and wants you to succeed." Tony's smile was proud and to the Mongolian boy's surprise, genuine. His eyes glimmered in the light. "You're going to love meeting my dad."

The upper air turbulence increased and Gene did his best to quell his rising nausea. He and Tony were flanked on either side by SHIELD agents and despite their benevolent mission, he felt no less in danger than he had when aboard the helicopter of the Tong. Though he hated being unconscious and therefore completely at his stepfather's nonexistent mercy, it was better than sitting through this.

_I'm not getting out of this. Tony has no doubt told these people who I really am and it's only a matter of time before I'm imprisoned aboard the helicarrier Pepper mentioned. Damn...I wish she was here. Her constants chatter would fill all the silences Stark has left. Why hasn't he said anything? Is he waiting for me to say something? Oppose myself, maybe? He must be doing this on purpose, to creep me out. He's waiting, waiting for me to make a mistake, get caught in a lie, perjure myself. Well, keep waiting, rich boy. It'll take more than you to...damn. _Gene couldn't keep up his internal pep talk any longer. A series of horrifying and unanswerable questions had just occurred to him, and he felt his pulse quicken.

_What am I going to say when I meet Howard Stark? I kidnapped him – what if he recognizes me? How the hell am I going to explain my way out of that when we supposedly never met? This is wrong. This is all wrong. I shouldn't be here. Why hasn't Stark turned me in? I'm the freaking Mandarin; he could get me in jail for life if he wanted to do so. I blew up an airplane, for starters. That's an act of terrorism right there, and it's also attempted murder, endangerment of others, and then there's restraining one against their will. Come to think of it, I did that twice with Zhang and Howard, not mention they could get me for assault with a deadly weapon dozens of times over._

_Tony must want me to confess so it's easier to convict me. That's smart. Smarter than I gave him credit for, to be honest. I wish I had some kind of plan for this contingency; I never realized how clever Tony is and all that niceness in his eyes is gone. He might really hate me right now. And what will his father say? The benevolent Howard Stark, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist. He might forgive me even if no one else does. Maybe if I throw myself on the mercy of my captive, I can get out of jail before I'm a doddering old man. That's assuming he's sane enough to testify in trial, which is a big stretch at this point. But let's assume I don't end up in prison until death, if only because that gives me something to plan on._

_Then what? Where can I go? Home? That was Zhang's property which I doubt I was the next in line to legally. Old man never did like me. I have my trust fund that even the Tong can't touch but they'll hound me out of revenge the rest of my life. Not to mention that that fund is in China, and I don't have any way of getting there. Once I was there I'd be okay, but there's no way I'd make it that far without the Tong killing me; I know how efficient they are. I might be safer in captivity, trapped in jail like a powerful tiger that the world wants to destroy. The thought that said tigers usually went insane in captivity made him grit his teeth. Damn you Stark, say something! This silence is driving me insane… but you know that already, don't you? And Rhodes thinks I'm the cold-hearted bastard. I'm guessing he never saw the evil in you, did he?_

Gene took a long, slow breath to calm himself. None of this was adding up in his head. It all seemed strange to him. Something was just inherently off, from the feel of the seat underneath him to the sunlight coming through the window. He kept expecting to wake up any moment now. Why was that? He should be terrified, yet he couldn't be, not with the nagging sensation that this was just a horrible nightmare running through his head. _None of this is real, it can't be. I know I found the fifth ring and fought Iron Man as the Mandarin. My body remembers the wounds so why is everyone pretending it didn't happen?_

The craft landed with a slight bump and the assembled rose as one, dutifully exiting the vehicle in single file. Tony through the other boy a smile he couldn't interpret

and they headed towards the remote cave that had until recently been the older Stark's confinement. They were met at its entrance by an old black man, empty eye socket hidden behind a patch. The suspicious look he gave the young Khan would have quaked a lesser man and Gene was uncomfortably reminded of the way Rhodes usually looked at him, with those piercing eyes that sensed the darkness under Gene's facade. Funny how neither Rhodey nor this man seemed to sense Tony's sadistic streak. The man addressed Tony.

"Your dad's inside, kid." He walked away, presumably to give the trio privacy but the Mongolian had the uncomfortable feeling the SHIELD commander found a heartfelt reunion boring and none of his business.

"Come on," Tony gestured for Gene to follow and the two entered the cave abreast.

The sour smell of the unwashed and rotten food was an assault and the Asian teen thought he'd be ill all over again. In the dim light he could make out a figure consuming with the speed of the desperate. A tendril of pity arose in his chest despite himself. Howard Stark had been reduced to a prisoner in a stinking cave, grateful for the stale rations SHIELD had brought with him. Even in the low light, the man looked thinner than he remembered and his clothing ragged and stained. Sympathy warred with another unfamiliar emotion. Shame. This was the kind of thing Zhang would have done, not him. Stray dogs deserved better treatment and Howard was on all accounts a kind decent man who treated those around him with respect and dignity. He had not deserved this. Gene simply put him away somewhere peasants loyal to the Khans would watch over him and forgotten about his prisoner in his eagerness to find the Makluan rings. Seeming him reduced to this seemed obscene.

Howard Stark's head shot up when he heard new footsteps, instinctively shying away in an act of self-preservation. His voice trembled as he spoke. "Who's there?"

"Dad?" Tony's voice was ragged and hesitant, as if he disbelieved he and this sad creature were related. "Dad! What did they DO to you?!"

The older Stark tried to run towards his son but was too weak to do so. Gene actually found himself reaching out to catch the man before he hit the stone floor. Tony ripped his father out of the other teen's arms and embraced his lost parent, breaking down as he did so. There was so much raw emotion in the moment that Gene felt the need to look away as if he were intruding on them, which he supposed technically he was. He tried not to look at the sight, knowing it would tear his heart out if he did, but he couldn't focus on anything else. He'd never seen any two people so hurt and sad and joyous all at once. He was equal parts mesmerized and horrified.

Howard Stark stroked his son's hair as if needing tactile proof his son was really there. Gene's hands shook as he recalled the last time he'd seen the older man, pleading with the Mandarin to spare his child's life and his cold refusal. He was the last of the Khans! Murder by negligence was still murder and his mother would weep to see him reduced to Zhang-like behavior towards another living creature, even as he raced towards his destiny. He began to back away, a stranger and an outsider at this tender family reunion, the sight of which dishonored him beyond any punishment his stepfather could mete out. _What have I done? _Gene thought as he fought down the urge to shudder. _Good lord, what have I become?_

"Dad, this is my friend, Gene Khan." Tony finally remembered the other boy's presence and Gene mentally cursed for not making his escape sooner and reluctantly allowed his friend to draw him closer to the man whose life he nearly ruined. "He's a descendant of the original Mandarin and he's been working with me to find the Makluan rings!"

Howard Stark held out his hand and smiled warmly at him, an expression he did not deserve. Gene noticed the man looked at him kindly, a father's gaze. He resembled what Tony would look like in thirty years and his eyes held the same intelligence and compassion his son's did. In that glance Gene saw forgiveness, warmth, redemption. It reminded him how Tony used to look at him and how Pepper still did. Somehow he knew all he had to do was ask forgiveness from this man for all the cruelty he'd inflicted on someone who'd harmed none and could receive absolution. Howard would forgive him and if the father did, the son would one day follow, even if not immediately. The part of him who had been Temugin craved what the older Stark generously offered but no. He didn't deserve it. The truth had to come out, not for Tony's sake or his father's, but for Gene's own. Living with this kind of forgiveness and love would drive him more insane than the hate, simply because he didn't deserve it.

"No!" Gene knocked the helping hand away, guilt and self-loathing exploding from him at last. "This isn't right! You're trying to fool me!" He turned to Tony. "You KNOW I'm the Mandarin and you know I'm responsible for your father's imprisonment, not Zhang! So stop playing this game of father confessor and be honest with me!"

The older Stark seemed shocked by this outburst and approached him gently. "Look, son, I don't know what's happened to you but you can't be responsible for all this. Colonel Fury told me all about Xin Zhang being the Mandarin and running the Tong. I doubt he's been a very kind stepfather so you don't have to defend him-"

"Enough!" Gene angrily turned to Tony. "Is this some kind of game to you, Stark? To make me look like a fool in front of your father? I admit I deserve to be humiliated after what I've done, but you're being a real ass about it. Whatever game you're playing, I don't want any part of it."

Howard Stark stared at him, confused and wary. Tony Stark smiled at him.

Unpleasantly.

"Yeah, sure. I was getting bored with this scenario anyway."

"Gee, Gene, I must confess I'm underwhelmed." Tony's voice was mocking and cruel, taunting him. "As smart as you seem to think you are, I expected you to figure it out a lot sooner."

The acrid smell of burning metal and plastic was an assault he tried to ignore. His field of vision was limited because his head was restrained. He glanced around as best he could and found himself in the charred remains of the factory that had been their hangout. His limbs refused to move, either too bound or injured to obey him. He suspected the former. Each time he inhaled his nose and throat burned with some strong chemical scent that made him wince. All around them the light was cold and gray, making everything monochrome like something out of a horror film. In this moment Gene felt an emotion he hadn't in a long time: pure terror. It was like his blood was running cold.

For good reason, mind you. The boy inventor pressed a button on his Pod and click and a whirr alerted the bound teen to a mechanism coming to life above his head and he looked up to see a large mirror sliding into place. He stared up at his reflection and was shocked to find himself attached to a strange machine. The device was a strange amalgamation of Yuan Era and modern design, stylized dragons and lions betrayed its Chinese origins yet here and there was a horse figure that screamed Mongolian. Twentieth century elements were clearly Stark's creation and under normal circumstances he would have been impressed with his rival's ingenuity. How he'd gotten this thing at all he'd never know; the last of these machines were said to be destroyed long ago. The thought that Tony Stark had probably had this for a long time – it was hardly the kind of thing one could acquire overnight – made him shiver all over. _Who else was he planning to use this abomination on? How did he modify it? It's incredible… disgusting, mind you, but incredible._

"Impressive, isn't it?" Tony read his mind with surprising ease, or perhaps just his facial expression. Then again, mind reading could have been exactly the point. "Who would have known those artifacts the Maggia robbed from the Vault and Stane thought were _objet d'art_ were in fact components of a Lotus Eater Machine?" Stark tapped on one of the diodes attached to Gene's head. "I had to throw in a few upgrades of course. The ancient machine had an unreliable power source; it couldn't operate for long and only then under optimum circumstances. As I'm sure you know, Lotus Eater Machines could create believable dream worlds to the point that the user could no longer distinguish between fantasy and reality. A bit of tech taken from our controller disk experiment, my own considerable genius and _voila!_ my personal virtual reality slash mind probe technology. It's amazing what great motivators betrayal and murder are, isn't it?"

Tony leaned on his captive, elbow firmly planted in the other boy's chest. Stark eyed Gene and the prisoner was shocked to see his former friend looking at him with clinical detachment. He might as well have been a malfunctioning piece of hardware. Tony seemed absolutely fine with this, completely and utterly at peace with the nightmarish torture device he had created. Again Gene felt himself shudder involuntarily, wondering how long his friend had been hiding this monstrous sociopath underneath that veil of a good guy. Was the good and kind Tony Stark an act? This icy person in front of him was too completely, unrepentantly detached from the world to be fake. The utter lack of emotion in Tony's voice made him shiver.

"You're going to lead me to my father. And in return, I'll create any world you like, real enough to keep you happy until the day you die. Don't worry," Tony's smile was that of a predator preparing to feed. "You'll be fed intravenously. I won't mistreat you. You'll live a long life, grow old, wither, and die. And in the meantime," that damn grin taunted him with his helplessness, "the world will move on without you. Me, Rhodey...in twenty years, in fifty, we might even be able to forgive you for what you done and move on. Forgive and forget; you'll be nothing but an old mistake we regret, then you'll just be nothing. Even Pepper will forget about you."

That last little bit of cruelty was uncalled for and Stark knew it. Gene thrashed against the restraints, trying to throw Tony off him but the other boy just laughed and stood up. His laughter was nothing like the warm hearted sound he'd heard in Greenland. This was more like the laugh an abusive Zhang might deliver at Gene before beating him senseless, and the parallels did not stop there. Tony had the audacity to roll his eyes at Gene as he stood over him, smirking coldly.

"Pepper has nothing to do with it. Unlike you and Rhodes, she never lifted a hand or a weapon against anyone. Leave her out of this!" He tried to make his voice strong and threatening but even to his own ears he sounded ragged and weak. Stark's expression was a study in contempt.

"Love to! But then, your stepfather threatened to kill her and you nearly finished the job by turning into the Mandarin right in front of her – which, by the way, pretty much destroyed any credibility you had with her." Tony's voice mocked the stricken expression he knew he wore when the last Khan thought of the sweet and cheerful girl ending up no more than collateral damage. "If you had succeeded in destroying me and Rhodey, then what? Would Pepper die too as the only one who could testify against you? Or hey, a guy like the Mandarin would need a concubine or two. I'd doubt you'd care very much if she was willing or not."

Gene stopped listening to Tony rant about the Chinese boy's fictional plans to ravish the atomic redhead and began to think about Pepper. For one thing, Tony's voice alone was pure nightmare fuel, his very expression something that Gene knew he'd never forget. For another, he'd forgotten all about Pepper briefly, too preoccupied in the horror of his current situation. Guilt hit him anew like a blow to the chest. He remembered how he hesitated when she begged him not to kill Rhodes and the gut wrenching pain in her clay eyes as she asked him "why?" tore his heart apart. He didn't mean for her to see this side of him. Honestly he'd never wanted any of them to know; he'd had a good idea how badly that would damage their friendship. He could almost laugh when he recalled that he didn't want his companions to know he was the Mandarin because he wanted to retain their good opinion of him, her most of all. Too late now, he thought dryly.

"Hey, you haven't asked how she's doing after all this," despite the disrespectful tone, Tony's voice still held reproach. He activated the computer's view screen and it flickered to life with a view of Pepper. She lay despondently on her narrow bed, as still as death. Her eyes were closed in a thrashing, uneasy sleep and he was shocked to see the dried tears on her cheeks. Had she been crying for him? After all he'd done, he knew the answer to that as soon as he thought it and flinched at the sight. Knowing her, she was kicking herself for forgetting how horrible and sick he was inside and trying to befriend him at all. Or perhaps she wept for the person he once was and could have been if his mother had lived; she was always the most optimistic and forgiving of all of them. He'd lost any chance to ask her. Gene watch in dismay as her beautiful lips formed a word that could have been his name. He found himself wanted to go to her, comfort her, hold her tightly and tell her he was sorry, that it was all going to be okay. Gene found himself regretting he hadn't tried sooner to befriend her; they'd wasted so much time disliking each other.

"That's enough of that," Tony told him and the screen faded to slate gray. "I wanted to show you what you've done to her and drive home the point that you'll never see her again." Stark laughed without humor. "Not in the waking world anyway. You can dream about her all you want but...try not to get a boner, okay? That's just gross. Trust me when I say she'll soon realize she was better off never knowing you. So," Tony's expression was now carefully nonchalant. Gene had the horrifying realization that it wasn't faked, that Tony was genuinely calm as he assessed his options. "What'll it be? A lifetime of bliss with Pepper? Fortune? Fame? Nah."

Gene was starting to hate that cold superiority. Ironic, because he recognized it from his own face and it chafed him to see his own defenses turned against him. The difference was that he would never, ever do this to anyone. The mocking, the sadism, the casual discussion of all the things most near and dear to them both; how had Gene never seen the darkness in those eyes? Had there been this side to Tony all along? The Mongolian boy had thought he'd known Tony Stark, known what kind of person he was and what his morals were. Whatever happened to 'weapons never solve a problem, they only create more'? _You broke that person, _a part of him responded angrily. _You broke Tony Stark down and he rose from the ashes of that plane crash a very different man_.

Tony was still speaking, sounding almost bored with the situation. "Your mom. Kinda funny that Pepper figured it out. She said you'd go somewhere you felt safe and your mom's grave in your home village was exactly where we found you. Lighting candles and meditating. Hey, good thing she didn't live long enough to see what an unfeeling monster her husband turned her son into, right? Mommy's little sociopath."

_Monster?_ Gene looked at Stark incredulously. Tony was brilliant, there was no doubt. Integrating the ancient and today's technology proved it but his intelligence just made him more of a monster because when lacking morality it meant he could be evil in new and terrifying ways. When someone as good and pure as Tony wanted to portray himself fell off his pedestal, the fall was greater, more painful that for someone like himself.

"You're the monster, Stark!" Gene snarled at him, trying to force him to react. "What, you're going to torture me to get information about your father? Fine! Do it! It's karmatic justice, something my people understand well. But don't come at me with your moral superiority and act like you're better than me. We are exactly the same; I just hid better longer because I had to! You don't survive amongst the Tong unless you're tough and smart. Zhang is a bastard and I had to be an even bigger bastard than him to survive!" Tony's face had all but become a Noh mask as Gene continued his tirade. "You're soft, Tony! You don't know what it's like to be scared and hungry and afraid each day is your last!"

"And that excuses taking my dad and leaving me for dead?" Tony said at last. "Because you suffered, it's okay? My father was a good man who would have helped you escape Zhang and the Tong and then researched the Makulan rings with you! But you didn't think about any of that, did you?" There was no heat in Tony's words, no icy anger either. They coursed through his lips in a monotone as if he were completely indifferent. "Of course, this was before you knew us. I'm sure it might have made it slightly more difficult to betray me and break Pepper's heart," Stark's eyes held a cold satisfaction that his words hurt the other teen. "Once you knew us as people. I guess anonymity makes terrorism and attempted murder okay. Anything is excusable when your ideology overrides your humanity. But me," Tony paused, looking thoughtful. "As I said earlier, I'm not going to hurt you. Not out of altruism but because I know it'll have no affect on you. Physical pain holds no real fear for you anymore. So all that remains is psychological."

Tony's eyes held a sudden impartial cruelty, the kind he'd seen so often in his stepfather's face and secretly knew every human on earth was capable of. It was naive of him to think Stark was any exception but perversely and with a dollop of irony, he'd found himself wanting Tony's friendship once, as an example of the person he'd wanted to be. What he found more ironic, even laughable, was that Tony was still taking the moral high ground. He had just finished telling Gene off for using his bad past as an excuse while simultaneously using his past as an excuse to use a Lotus Eater Machine on him. There was a double standard there, one that was not so much infuriating as it was terrifying, because Tony had somehow taken Howard's Thou Shalt Not Kill policy and twisted it into a justification for torture of the worse kind.

"Those who fight monsters should look to it that they don't become monsters," Gene replied heatedly. He got great satisfaction out of the way the other boy inhaled sharply and, for a split second there was some doubt in those cloudy eyes.

Stark took a breath to steady himself, however, and continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "If I wanted to you to relive the pain of your mother's murder, because by now I'm sure you realize Zhang killed her for the power of the Mandarin, I could." The boy began to pace. "But I'm sure you've done that in countless nightmares, along with whatever ...indignities Zhang or his men could think to visit upon you." Tony turned his head and held Gene's gaze with the intensity and precision of a laser scalpel. "Despair. You can handle despair. You have out of necessity after the death of your mother. But hope?" Tony smiled bitterly. "The hope of a better life or happy memories must cut right through someone like you. So I'm going to do the kindest, cruelest thing I can to you, Gene. I'm going to give you hope. Hope of a bright future, any future imaginable. My machine can invent any imaginary world and I can create the characters and story. But you, Gene? You're the one who has to act it out. You see, I plan to break you. I only have a lunar month to do so. For some reason these machines won't work during a full moon and I do hope it takes at least that long, perhaps longer. It's interesting, seeing you like this."

"Do your monologues help justify your behaviors to yourself, Stark? Does telling yourself you're being kind help keep you from realizing your dad would hate you if he could see you now?" The Chinese boy managed a sneer. He'd been going for a smirk, but couldn't quite manage that under the circumstances.

Looking remarkably unmoved, Tony pressed a button and the machine began to thrum with life. "Goodbye, Gene."

Gene's innards turned to ice and his last conscious thought was awe. Awe that when someone like Tony, stripped of morality and compassion, was capable of more insidious evil than anything the villains of New York could think of. A Tony like this with the right resources and SHIELD's cooperation could spread this sort of dispassionate evil like a dark miasma over the earth. Tony had slipped into madness, the cold hate filled void where revenge justified everything. It terrified him and no matter what he saw in the simulations he knew nothing would ever outdo Tony's slasher smile in sheer wrongness and surreality.

The next thing he knew he was in a hospital room with a screaming Pepper. Fluid and curses poured from her and he realized with a start that she wasn't dying, she was in labor. She looked to be about twenty, her atomic fireball hair mid back length now and her body a bit fuller, as would expected with pregnancy. The sight was so realistic that for a moment he felt all the nausea he would during a real birth. He swayed on his feet, only to feel a gentle hand on his elbow that guided him to a seat. He lifted his head to smile his thanks and found himself looking into the eyes of his mother.

She smiled with a touch of irony. "And this is why bearing children is the realm of women not men, my son. Leaving childbirth in the hands of males would have doomed our species from the beginning." Behind her, Pepper's father heartily agreed and the two shared a 'aren't our children adorable' kind of smile.

Stunned, Gene opened his mouth to respond only to hear the attending physician crow triumphantly that he had a son, the next Khan. The nurse cleaned up the infant and wiped Pepper's sweaty but triumphant face. He smiled at her despite himself and looked down at the heavy gold band on his left hand. On his right wrist there was a Mongolian engagement bracelet. He dared a glance at Pepper and began to shake when he realized she had both as well. His stomach twisted as he shut his eyes, trying to drown out the infant's squeals. He could hear Pepper's father ask in amazement how a half Mongolian boy managed to have red hair, and his mother gushed about the pretty Asian eyes of the boy. Gene put his hands over his ears, desperate to shut it all out.

_No, this isn't real, this isn't real. His breathing quickened. This is too cruel, too heartbreaking, I can't take it._

The scene faded and he found himself in a hotel suite tastefully decorated in cream and gold. He sat on a four poster bed festooned with silk screens and was shocked to find Pepper kneeling beside him on the mattress wearing nothing but a scrap of lace that screamed seduction and a bridal veil. He wondered vaguely if Tony's boner comment had been some kind of threat; would he shove Gene into another simulation if that happened? So Tony was not only a sadist, he was a sadist who enjoyed driving people insane. It was a very disturbing fact and he would totally give this more thought… later. Right now Pepper was beaming at him as if she'd won the lottery and it was impossible not to smile back at her.

"Gene," dream Pepper breathed, capturing his face in her hands, "you make me so happy."

It was yet another illusion, designed to break him. And yet he didn't care, not at all. He knew Tony would create dream after dream until he cracked but when he looked into this Pepper's eyes, shining with love, he found he didn't care. The only way anyone would ever love him was in this fantasy world. All those years of abuse and vengeance seeking had left him a broken shell of a human being, and only outside of reality would anyone ever be able to look past that. This Pepper didn't hate him, didn't fear him, she just loved as she was programmed to do. And since he was fairly sure Stark would throw the switch and slam him into a different reality any second now, there was no reason not to enjoy this moment for as long as he had it.

Gene closed his eyes and kissed her gently, for now giving in to the illusory life.

Tony turned away from the LEM monitor, taking one quick peek to make sure the system was working correctly or so he told himself. Anyone with a pair of eyes could see the other boy was in love with Pepper; he wouldn't endure a limo ride with Happy otherwise; but watching the tender honeymoon scene unfold made it difficult to rein in petty jealousy. He had no right or reason. Gene and Pepper would never meet in this life again and Tony was having dinner with her and her dad on Tuesday. He had the real Pepper, the girl Gene could never have, not now. Any chance of those two together had been destroyed and now only the dream world could make that happen for him. Tony had made it happen for him out of something akin to compassion, though perhaps there was a bit of guilt in the mix.

Before he left for the day he pulled a chair to his prisoner's side and began to speak to the sleeping figure. He was fairly sure that the raven haired prisoner couldn't hear him, but he had to say something to get this horrible weight off him. This had seemed like a great idea at the time, yet now he felt strange about the whole ordeal. It didn't have to end like this and the possibilities of what could have been and thoughts of all the events that led up to now haunted him. But not Gene – Gene would never be haunted by this world ever again. That was Tony's gift to him.

"I'm sorry, Gene," Tony propped his elbows on the control unit and stared at the Chinese boy over his folded hands. "I mean, I'm sorry about your imprisonment least of all strangely enough but still...sorry. I just don't know what else to do with you. Sending you to SHIELD or a remote island in the Pacific would be poetic justice but I think you're safer here. Although maybe putting you in cryogenic storage would be better. I guess I could always try that later if you develop any health problems; I don't want you to die even after everything that's happened. But anyway, I'm sorry you had a stepfather who was an abusive murderer and that you lost your mom so young. I can relate, honest."

Tony leaned back and thought carefully about what he was about to say next, even though he doubted the other could hear him. "I really sorry, Temugin, for the person you could have been never having a chance. I'm sorry I didn't know you back then. You, me and Rhodey could have grown up together, like brothers. And I'm sorry I never asked you about your life when you probably could have used someone to talk to. Our whole friendship seemed to revolve around the rings and I never even thought about trying to relate to you as a person. You carried all this around inside of you and I guess you just snapped under the pressure. I know what that's like."

The brunette teen took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He continued softly, "You deceived us, you lied to us, and when the truth was finally right in our faces you spun a story to make us feel sorry for you. That was quick thinking by the way." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "But two things stick out in my mind. One was the shared laugh we had in Greenland. It'd seemed like we were actually friends in that moment and I'll miss that because I think that was the REAL Gene Khan. And… you sacrificed yourself to save Pepper. You knew my secret and you didn't even have the rings to protect you but you gave up your life for her. Because… you love her. That's what a hero does. That's what a courageous man would do and it's unfair that things ended like this. I think the world could have used a hero like the Mandarin _could _have been. For that, I'm going to miss you most of all and I mourn what could have been. You could've been better than Iron Man, you know…" Tony smiled as he got up but there was little humor in it. An observer might even have caught a flicker of regret and loss but it faded quickly. "I lied you know. Pepper will never forget you and she'll never stop missing your friendship. Neither will I, though I'm sure we'll both try to forget you ever happened. Still, I hope your dreams will afford you more happiness than the waking world ever did. Good-bye, Gene."

As he walked away Tony felt his heart constrict but he dismissed the feeling as a warning the organ needed a recharge. There was nothing more he could do here. Time to move on.


End file.
